Short Biography

I am an Urban Geographer working at the department of Geography, Planning and International Development Studies of the Universiteit van Amsterdam. What I love about Urban Geography, is that you can encounter the urban transformations and social challenges you read about as soon as you step out into the city.  Much of my inspiration for research and teaching comes from these everyday observations, in Amsterdam where I was born and raised, but also in other cities that I have visited over the years. 

My research focuses on the geography of everyday life in cities, oftewel de geleefde stad (in Dutch). I explore how residents experience, use and produce urban space, studying the different ways in which neighborhoods form meaningful places for residents (or not) and raising questions about place-based processes of in- and exclusion, feelings of belonging and loss, encounters with difference, and place-making and place-claiming. An important element in my research is how these everyday, lived experiences in the city are shaped by - but also contribute to - macro-processes of polarization, segregation and fragmentation of urban space. My fieldwork has often focused on disadvantaged urban areas and urban renewal projects. I am currently working on a new research project on urban marginality and territorial stigmatization.

My teaching responsibilities currently include the Bachelor courses Introduction to Human Geography and Introduction to Urban Geography, and the Master course on Advanced Urban Geographies. I also supervise thesis projects for Bachelor, Master and Research Master students. I am strategically engaged in our academic program as head of the Education Committee (OC) for our bachelor and master programs in Human Geography and Planning.

• Homepage of the department of Geography, Planning and International Development Studies

• Homepage for the Center for Urban Studies

News

April 2018: AAG workshop on Geographies of discontent 

Together with colleague Myrte Hoekstra, I am organizing three workshop sessions at the AAG 2018 conference on 'Geographies of discontent: loss of place and the emotional ramifications of spatial change'. I am also presenting a paperof my own on territoriality and loss of home.

December 2017: new Dutch publication on territorial stigmatization

Colleagues Marijn Ferier and Myrte Hoekstra, former RMUS student Annefleur Noom and I publisehd a short paper in the Dutch journal Agora on resident experiences of territorial stigmatization in the Bijlmer and how they themselves experience this neighbourhood on the ground. Feel free to contact me for a copy of the paper.

August 2017: new publication on politics of place in a 'super-diverse' neighbourhood

Myrte Hoekstra and I wrote a paper on the way in which contestations between different groups of residents over a neighbourhood center in a highly diverse neighbourhood inform belonging and non-belonging. The paper can be found online as open access article in Social and Cultural Geography.

June 2017: seminar on local experiences of urban tourism

On June 23rd, I am organizing a seminar on local experiences of urban tourism in European cities, with presentations by Johannes Novy, Sebastien Jacquout and myself. See the website of the Center for Urban Studies for the detailed program.

April 2017: new publication on resident experiences of urban tourism

Together with colleague Willem Boterman, I recently conducted fieldwork in the Amsterdam canal district to explore how long term, middle-class residents experience the transformation of their neighbourhood into a place of leisure and consumption. The project reflects our shared interest in the changing urban landscape in our city and my personal interest in the ambivalent relationship between place change and belonging. The paper, titled When the spell is broken: gentrification, urban tourism and privileged discontent in the Amsterdam canal district, has been accepted for publication in Cultural Geographies. The article is available via open acces, see http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1474474017706176

Onderwijsactiviteiten / Teaching activities 2017-2018:

• Bachelor: Inleiding Sociale Geografie, Basisspecialisatie Stadsgeografie
• Master Human Geography: Advanced Urban Geographies
• Research Master Urban Studies: thesis supervision and urban labs
• Research Master Social Sciences: supervision indivual reading course
• Voorzitter Opleidingscommisie Bachelor Sociale Geografie en Planologie
• Head of the Educational Programme Committee for the Master programs in Human Geography and Urban and Regional Planning

• Opleidingscommissie Geografie en Planologie

Scriptiebegeleiding

Ben je geinteresserd in het schrijven van een Bachelor of Master scripie  op een stadsgeografisch thema, kijk dan even hieronder naar de lijst met onderwerpen die binnen mijn onderzoeksexpertise vallen.

Are you interested in writing a thesis in the field of Urban Geography, please have a look at the list below of topics I have supervised in the past.

• gemengde wijken als plek van ontmoeting | living together in mixed neighbourhoods
• buurtbinding & sociale cohesie | place attachment, territoral belonging & social cohesion
• domeinvorming in de stad | place-claiming & territoriality
• bewonerservaringen van buurtverandering, gentrification & achteruitgang| lived experiences of neighbourhood change, gentrification & downgrading
• stedelijke vernieuwing & sociaal mengingsbeleid | urban restructuring & social mix projects
• buurtreputaties | imaginative geographies & territorial stigmatization
• buurtkeuze en verhuismobiliteit | neighbourhood choice & residential mobility
• tijdruimtelijk gedrag & dagelijkse routines in de stad | everyday geographies,  timespace routines & mobility practices
• gebruik en beleving openbare ruimte | everyday use and lived experience of public space
• stedelijk toerisme | urban tourism

Enkele voorbeelden van begeleide scripties | some examples of recent thesis supervision:

• Annefleur Noom (2016) Resident experiences of territorial stigmatization in Amsterdam and Brussels (RMUS)
• Marijn Ferier (2016) Belonging and use of space in migrant neighborhoods in NYC and Amsterdam (RMUS)
• Rosa de Jong (2017) Consuming diversity or living diversity: middle classes in renewal areas in Glasgow and Rotterdam (RMUS)
• Bachelor thesis project on Living together apart in the city, in collaboration with R&D (Planning department, Amsterdam)
• Thamon Blokland (2017) Evaluating favela painting projects in Port-au-prince, Haiti  (MA Human Geography)
• Brian Hinton (2017) Fragmented sense of home amongst young homeless people in Birmingham (MA Human Geography)
• Wesel Brocken (2017) Protests against urban tourism in Amsterdam (MA Human Geography)
• Janne Hogervorst (2017) Experiences of social mix in an affluent neighbourhood in Haarlem (MA Human Geography)
• Brady Rall (in progress) Everyday mobilities of young migrants in Boston and Amsterdam (RMUS)
• Jessica Warren (in progress) Mailing practices as neighbouring occassion & fostering social cohesion (RMSS)

Research interests

My research interests include a wide range of questions about the meaning of neighborhoods for residents, exploring how residents' everyday routines become embedded  in the neighborhood in which they live (or not!); how the neighborhood enables or limits their opportunities to improve their lives, and how - when neighborhood forms a meaningful place to residents - it is then acted upon. I have studied these questions in different types of neighborhoods (from low income neighborhoods to the Amsterdam canal belt) and for different groups of residents, using both qualitative and quantitative methods to provide insight in a variety of themes, including:

• emotional/affective geographies, focusing on place attachment and belonging, but also feelings of estrangement and loss in relation to place, whereby I interpret belonging not as a given or fixed, but as a process which may change over time. In particular, I have recently become interested in the everyday experiences of processes of spatial change that trigger feelings of discontent and territorial responses;
• everyday practices & timespace routines, examining the ways in which residents' lives are embedded in the neighbourhood and the wider city, how residents strategically manage their exposure to their environment, the barriers they encounter in navigating the city and the way in which social inequalities become manifest in the spatiality of everyday life;
• politics of place, with a particular focus on neighborhoods as informal territories  (despite the fact that most urban neighborhoods are relatively heterogeneous in the Dutch context). This includes questions relating to unequal power relations in informal and formal processes of place-making in terms of the degree to which different meanings of place are acknowledged and accommodated;
• 'living with difference', investigating how residents in mixed neighborhoods and housing projects experience and respond to living in close proximity to 'others' and studying under which conditions social mix programs can contribute to positive experiences of diversity;
• lived experiences of urban marginality, studying how residents in deprived urban areas experience, negotiate and cope with the marginalized context in which they live. This also includes research on processes of territorial stigmatization and the way in which residents of stigmatized urban areas themselves ascribe alternative meanings to their neighbourhood.

Research in progress

• Developing a research project on the lived experience of urban marginality and territorial stigmatization in Amsterdam Bijlmer;
• Finalizing a research paper with colleague Richard Ronald and Oana Druta on the Dutch case study of intergenerational support for home-making practices of young adults, as part of the ERC-project HOUWEL;
• Collaboraring with colleague Willem Boterman in a research project on supergentrification and new gentrifiers in the Amsterdam Canal Belt;

PhD Supervision

- Annalies Teernstra (2009-2014) Processes of neighborhood upgrading and downgrading, copromotor

- Myrte Hoekstra (2013-2017) Governing diversity and experiencing difference, copromotor

- Doske van der Wilk (2014-2017) Gentrifying public space, daily supervisor

- Robin-Jan van Duijne (2017-) Peri-urbanization in India, co-promotor

• Robin-Jan's homepage

• Myrte Hoekstra

• HOUWEL research project

En verder...

• maak ik me regelmatig druk over het gebrek aan nuance in het publie debat over arme wijken en de misleidende en stigmatiserende labels die daarin gebruikt worden;
• en klim ik dan ook wel eens in de pen, zie bijvoorbeeld mijn reactie op het stuk Afrowijk in de Groene Amsterdammer (naar mijn mening het zoveelste voorbeeld was van Bijlmer bashing), mijn  kritische reactie op de term 'moslimwijken' in de Trouw en op de radio bij het programma CritiX  van FunX en een recent opiniestuk in het Parool met collega Wouter van Gent over onvrede van bewoners in Amsterdamse tuindorpen, mede op basis van mijn onderzoek in Betondorp.
• ben ik af en toe actief op twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/FenneGeo ;
• schreef ik onlangs een blog over toerisme op de Wallen (zie link hieronder)
• scoorde ik ooit een ikje bij de NRC;
• kom ik als werkende moeder altijd tijd tekort.

• Onvrede is breder dan Noord

• Urban Studies Blog on the red light district

• De moslimwijk bestaat helemaal niet

• Ingezonden brief naar De Groene over Afrowijk

• Ikje in de NRC

• No ancillary activities